Labor department seeks injunction against Evansville restaurant owner
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The U.S. Department of Labor is seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction against the owner of an Evansville restaurant. Bardhyl Shabani, owner of Friendship Diner, is accused of attempting to deprive current and former employees of money in a “tip pooling scheme.”
In a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Evansville, the department’s Office of the Solicitor says Shabani violated the anti-retaliation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act by harassing and threatening employees to coerce them into giving false statements saying the restaurant’s tip pool was voluntary.
An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hours Division found that Friendship Diner and Shabani owe more than $450,000 in back wages and liquidated damages to 44 current and former employees.
The investigation found that between Feb. 22, 201 and Feb. 19, 2023, the restaurant operated an illegal tip sharing pool by requiring servers to return $10 in tips for each weekday shift and $15 in tips from each weekend shift to management, which either kept the tips or paid the hourly wages for bussers.
Shabani is also accused of failing to pay all workers the federally required minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, failing to pay overtime, and failing to keep accurate payroll records.
“This employer is aware that his practice of sharing tips is not in compliance with the law. The actions our investigators found in this case are similar to violations found at a Wisconsin restaurant operated by Bardhyl Shabani in 2013,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Aaron Loomis in Indianapolis said in a news release. “Federal wage laws detail specific criteria for the use of a tip pool and who can participate in such pools. Employers who violate federal wage laws will be held accountable for paying their workers all the wages they have earned.”
The complaint alleges that after Shabani’s attorney received a letter from the division requesting he cease and desist any retaliatory conduct, Shabani threatened to take a day of work away from servers who would not sign statements that the tip pool was voluntary.
“Shabani also told employees if they received any money as a result of WHD’s investigation, it is his money and had to be returned to him,” the complaint said.
In a statement provided to WFIE-TV in Evansville, Shabani said:
“After the pandemic, the business was slow. The buses were complaining about the tips, they weren’t making enough money, $5 plus the tip so we changed it to paying them $13 an hour that would include the tip. We had two bussers on the weekdays, three on the weekends, so we needed to find a solution. The waitresses had a set amount that they tipped $7 on the weekdays, which would total to $42 and $10 on the weekends which with total to $90. It cost me little over $300 a day to pay the bussers, so I thought I was doing a favor on both sides, waitresses and buses. When I told the DOL the situation he said that I messed up the tip pool and now I have to pay all the waitresses they’re back pay for three years from $235 an hour to $725. For every hour they worked they will not count the tip they made and they charged me $450,000 with total amount of waitresses left for a tip. It’s for three years it’s probably $40,000. So, that’s the whole story. I don’t know what I’m gonna do now. I lost 35% of my business making me something I’m not. I thought I was doing the right thing but the DOL knows best I guess we gotta go through it. I love my employees, my customers. I would never do anything to harm my employees. I’m with God, if I made a mistake, it was an honest mistake, and it cost me a lot more.”
The DOL is asking the court to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prohibit Shabani and Friendship Diner from “any further retaliation against or intimidation of their employees.”